Silence

Ever heard the sound of silence? What does silence sound like?

John Cage's 4'33" doesn't count since it is a meta-music piece that focuses on the ambient environmental sound that was always present but was obliterated by the musicians' playing of their instruments.

What one hears in a sensory deprivation tank doesn't quite count either, since at that low level of ambient noise, one is truly hearing the noise floor that exists within one's hearing system.

By extension, that includes sitting in the world's quietest place---an anechoic chamber located at Microsoft HQ, of all places. It is rated at −20.35 dBA, where the reference point is defined at 20 μPa.

Where moving particles exist, sound will exist due to the pressure changes from the mechanical movement. Ergo, where there are no moving particles existing, there will be no sound, i.e. silence.

Sadly, even the vacuum of space isn't truly silent. It has a reported pressure fluctuating anywhere between 1 mPa to 1 fPa---hardly the zero moving particles that silence is.

But am I deviating from my original question? I asked, ``ever heard the sound of silence?'', and yet it seems that I deviate to determining if there is an objective silence than can be heard.

No, no one can ever heard the sound of silence. Our ears simply aren't that sensitive, not to mention that in a situation where true silence exists, we as a human won't.

Silence is an absolute---the absolute definition of nothingness, a true void. It's startling how such a simple word encompasses one of the extremes of the universe that we can only hope to asymptotically approach. We may stumble upon it under sufficiently exclusive conditions, often including the smallest possible space we can conjure up in the fleetest of moments.

But it will go as quickly as it came. Ephemeral.

Silence is beyond. Silence is also ephemeral. Silence may be a true end of the universe as we know it---heat death.